Hard Questions, Big Thinking: The Role of Candor in Manufacturing Strategy
OVERVIEW
- Revenue: $50,000,000
- General Description: Manufacturing
- Geographic Location: United States
- Markets Served: Office Furniture and Storage
THE SITUATION
Metalworks is a 57-year-old, privately held manufacturer of metal filing, storage, and organizational products with approximately $50 million in revenue. By most measures, the company is healthy–a strong leadership team, disciplined execution, and a proven track record of delivering for its customers. There is no 2026 crisis.
And yet, the market Metalworks competes in is shrinking.
The long-term shift away from physical filing and storage products is not a surprise, but it is a reality the company must confront–not reactively, but proactively. For a company this well-run, the risk isn’t failure today. It’s irrelevance tomorrow.
“I challenged our team to think beyond what we know. It’s easy to keep doing what you are good at, especially when the business is healthy. But the best time to make bold moves is when you have the strength and stability to do so. That’s where we are, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said CEO Tom Paine.
JACO Advisory Group has partnered with Metalworks for three consecutive years on strategic planning. That continuity matters more than people think–JACO walks in already knowing the business, the people, and the right questions to ask. Over 2024 and 2025, the partnership produced meaningful results, including growth initiatives expanding into new segments such as K-12, and cost reduction efforts including a consolidation of the company’s physical footprint. Both initiatives are delivering.
But incremental progress in a declining category has its limits. Heading into 2026, Paine challenged his leadership team to think bigger–to move beyond optimization and identify the growth platforms that would define Metalworks’ next chapter.
THE SOLUTION
The engagement began with a deliberate challenge to conventional thinking. Rather than anchoring the planning process around existing products and customers, Metalworks’ leadership team was asked to think without constraints–generating a broad range of growth concepts spanning new segments, adjacencies, and capabilities. The goal was not to produce a long list, but to create the conditions for honest, rigorous prioritization.
That prioritization process is where the real work happened. JACO facilitated structured dialogue that pushed the executive team beyond comfortable consensus and into genuine debate–stress-testing assumptions, surfacing disagreements, and ultimately forcing the hard choices that strategic planning demands.
One tool that proved particularly effective was a structured exercise that assigned each executive a specific thinking role–deliberately chosen to expand beyond their natural perspective. The goal was to create productive tension: to get people advocating for ideas they might normally dismiss, and challenging ideas they might normally champion. It worked.
“I’m very pleased with the depth and breadth of our team’s thinking. We identified and prioritized four new growth platforms that have the potential to drive significant growth into new segments. Our core metal storage products and customers are still our backbone, but we all realize that we must grow in other categories over the long-term,” said President Scott Lakari. “This is where JACO has been invaluable. Good strategic planning requires tough prioritization. Chris from JACO facilitated tremendously candid conversations. Chris pushed us very hard, and our team responded.”
That candor didn’t happen by accident. It was the product of three years of accumulated trust–built through consistent engagement, honest feedback, and a genuine understanding of who each person on the leadership team is, how they think, and what they need to hear. With that foundation in place, people felt safe enough to say difficult things out loud, and confident enough to hear them. More than one member of the leadership team noted afterward that the conversations they had during this process were unlike anything they’d experienced before. That’s the difference between a firm that knows your business and one that knows your people.
“Our conversations were deep. We spent a tremendous amount of time debating and prioritizing growth platforms. Metalworks benefited from its continuity with Chris at JACO. He knows our executive team members’ strengths, and he asks us tough questions. He uses tools to challenge our traditional mindset. His combination of strategic planning experience coupled with our depth of relationships helped Metalworks push through our comfort zone,” said CEO Tom Paine.
The result was four clearly prioritized growth platforms–each grounded in Metalworks’ core strengths, each pointed toward segments where the company can compete and win.
THE OUTCOME
Metalworks enters 2026 with four prioritized growth platforms, each targeting new segments beyond its core metal storage business, and a leadership team aligned and energized around what comes next. The strategic logic is deliberate: use the healthy core business as economic oxygen–generating the stability and cash flow needed to invest in new platforms that won’t be profitable on day one, but that will define the company’s next chapter as its core market continues to evolve.
The goal is not to abandon what made Metalworks strong, but to build on that foundation before the pressure to change becomes urgent. This outcome required a willingness to challenge long-held assumptions, debate uncomfortable trade-offs, and make hard prioritization decisions as an executive team.
Metalworks’ culture has historically been built on disciplined execution–operationally, commercially, and across shared services. The 2024 and 2025 strategic initiatives reflect that strength, having gained meaningful traction and improved key company metrics. The 2026 platforms will be built on the same foundation, now pointed toward bigger and broader growth opportunities.
“Our best days are ahead of us. Metalworks has key strengths, such as our flexible manufacturing and high commitment to our customers. We intend to expand on these capabilities to drive our 2026 platforms. Our team is energized,” said President Scott Lakari.
The best strategic planning doesn’t wait for a crisis. JACO partners with leadership teams to ask hard questions, facilitate honest dialogue, and build growth platforms that are both ambitious and executable–while the business still has the strength to act on them.
